Translator

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Hoffa Joins Port Truck Drivers Strike At Long Beach/Los Angeles Ports

(Long Beach, Calif.) - Today, Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa joined port truck drivers, warehouse workers, community and faith allies, and Teamster officials at a press conference at ITS marine terminal at the Port of Long Beach.

The workers and Teamster officials announced that misclassified “independent contractor” drivers at Chinese-owned port trucking company Intermodal Bridge Transport (IBT) filed a petition to be recognized first as employees, and to be represented by the Teamsters. IBT driver Jose Portillo reported that the company official who received the petition threw it on the ground and the workers walked off the job on strike. This is their second strike.

The Teamsters also entered into a new partnership with the Warehouse Workers Resource Center, including support for Cal Cartage warehouse workers who announced the intent to go on strike starting Wednesday morning Oct. 28.

Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa released the following statement: The misclassification of workers, and the devastating wage theft, ends here. Yesterday I visited with supply chain workers who haul imports and exports to and from the docks at our nation’s largest port, and with the warehouse workers who unpack and reload items onto trucks destined for major retailers like Amazon and Walmart. Every one of these egregiously exploited workers shared stories of their inhumane working conditions and their determination to fight back, not just for themselves but for all of their supply chain co-workers. I told them “You have the support of the 1.4 million Teamster members. We will bring justice to port truck drivers and warehouse workers nationwide!”

Teamsters Vice President Fred Potter made the following announcements: “This morning, a majority of misclassified independent contractors at Intermodal Bridge Transport (IBT) presented a demand to be recognized first as employees, and to be represented by the Teamsters. Upon receiving no word back, they took up their picket signs and went on strike against the company’s unfair treatment. They demanded a dignified and safe working environment; demanded that the company immediately repair all unsafe trucks and ensure every truck has a functioning Air Conditioning unit; and demanded access to a dignified break room with clean drinking water, proper restrooms, and a place where we can prepare their meals and rest during their long days at work. This is the first time in American history that workers misclassified as independent contractors have simultaneously demanded their rights as employees and their right to form a union.”

“Wage theft isn’t just about misclassification. It’s about workers who are supposed be paid a living wage – and they’re not, Potter said. "And that is happening right here on port property, at the Cal Cartage warehouse, where the company is violating the City’s living wage ordinance. We support these workers and pledge to stand with them throughout their fight to help them secure dignity, respect, and fair day’s pay for a hard day’s work."

On Monday, Oct. 26, port truck drivers misclassified as “independent contractors” began their eighth “Unfair Labor Practice” strike at America’s largest port complex, the twin ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach. The striking drivers included those misclassified as “independent contractors” by Pacific 9 Transportation (Pac 9), who have been on an indefinite strike since July this year for 15 straight weeks, and those employed by global giant XPO Logistics(NYSE: XPO), which has spent $7.34 Billion in the last year expanding their reach in the global supply chain.

On Tuesday, Oct. 27, misclassified drivers from Intermodal Bridge Transport (IBT) began their second Unfair Labor Practice strike after delivering a petition for improved working conditions, recognition as employees, and to be represented by the Teamsters. These drivers are on strike to protest unfair labor practices, including misclassification and retaliation, harassment, and intimidation for having filed claims for wage theft with the California Labor Commissioner’s Division of Labor Standards Enforcement.

Today, California Cartage warehouse workers announced that they will be on strike starting Wednesday. In the past year, workers at this warehouse have come together to demand an end to wage theft, unsafe conditions, and irregular schedules at a massive warehouse at the Port of Los Angeles. These workers, who have been coming together with the support of the Warehouse Worker Resource Center, now have the support of the Teamsters Port Division, which has been fighting for justice at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach for many years.

“I have worked at Cal Cartage through a staffing agency for years. I’m going on strike because the company is trying to intimidate workers who ask for basic health and safety, good wages and permanent jobs,” said Anthony Vallecillo, a Cal Cartage worker from Wilmington.

BACKGROUND ON MISCLASSIFICATION: As America’s lowest wage workers are beginning to see justice with a $15 hourly wage on the horizon, the cries of the millions of American workers who are misclassified as “independent contractors” are reaching a fevered pitch. Spanning employees in the janitorial, e-commerce, entertainment, home care, construction, port truck driving industries these workers are not only robbed of basic workplace protections like the right to minimum wage, overtime pay, and a safe and healthful workplace, but they are also being cheated out of such rudimentary workplace benefits as unemployment compensation when they are laid off; workers’ compensation when they are injured on the job; and the right to form a union have a voice on the job – a voice that allows workers to gain respect, dignity, and the ability to bargain collectively for better wages and working conditions. Misclassification robs workers of these rights.

As “independent contractors,” workers do not have the ability to engage in group activity to protest and resolve workplace issues. Further, misclassification deprives workers of protections afforded “employees” under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Port drivers are on the front line challenging this unfair labor practice by filing charges with the National Labor Relations Board alleging that misclassification itself violates the NLRA (as does retaliation for filing wage and hour claims”).

WAGE THEFT: Employees illegally misclassified as independent contractors are also victims of pervasive wage theft that robs workers of billions of dollars a year. Misclassifying drivers enables trucking companies to shift their business expenses on to the backs of low wage workers who are controlled by the trucking company that employs them. Predatory truck lease schemes bind drivers to their employer. Companies deduct the cost of diesel fuel, insurance, maintenance, parking, even the cost of printing paychecks, leaving drivers with very little or even negative paychecks. Studies have shown that the average port truck driver is subject to $4,000 per month, or $48,000 per year, in wage theft. Without the ability to fight back at their workplace.

TAX FRAUD: Misclassification doesn’t just hurt the workers and their families – it hurts us all through pervasive and wide scale tax fraud that robs our schools, our roads, our public safety services of billions in vital resources.

THE FRONT LINE: On the front line of the fight to end the misclassification/wage theft scheme are the professional truck drivers at our nation’s largest port complex – the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, who haul everyone’s cargo, including Amazon, Costco, and Proctor & Gable. Nearly one-half a trillion dollars in goods per year flow through these ports – more than 40 percent of U.S. imports and exports – yet the men and women who haul these containers on and off the docks to nearby rail yards, distribution centers, and warehouses are denied employee rights. By striking and filing unfair labor practice charges port drivers are fighting back!

15 comments:

This is what is going on around the country with big corporations. This did happen to us today . But you never know when it will happen again or for how long. My question to you all is when will you start to fight back ? When is it to late? The time is now ,if you think these corporations care about you and your family I have a bridge to sell you. They care about becoming the most richest and most powerful and your helping them get there while you fall for the crumbs they keep throwing your way. Open your eyes and wake up. This is not the small mom and pop places we are working at. Big corporations are putting theses places out of business for there greed.

Bradley Jacobs, chairman and chief executive officer of XPO Logistics, said, "We have an unprecedented opportunity to create value for our customers and investors as a result of the Con-way transaction. We're moving quickly to eliminate redundancies and leverage our scale to better serve our more than 50,000 customers."....

This is what the Xpo's plan is....and some of us are not included in that plan...and for the one"s who are staying well hope you don't mind taking a pay reduction.People just remember corporation don't make high profits by paying well.

According to four researchers — Richard Freeman at the National Bureau of Economic Research, Eunice Han at Wellesley College, and David Madland and Brendan V. Duke at the Center for American Progress the two trends are closely connected.

The fall in union membership is associated with a shift of workers from the middle to the lower class. According to the researchers analysis, the number of Americans who are in the middle class, which they define as within 50% above or below the median income, has shrunk along with union membership, with many dropping to the low-income group.

"The decline of unionism appears to have contributed to the shrinkage of the middle-income group of the workforce and the increasing proportion of the lower income group, with a noticeable but not huge magnitude commensurate with unions’ declining role in the US labor market," said the report.

Children with parents in a union end up better off than children with parents outside of a union. Using Panel Study of Income Dynamics, or PSID figures, the researchers were able to track both parents' and their children's union status, educational attainment, income, and health status. In all categories the researchers found that children with unionized parents end up with better earnings, higher educational attainment, and fewer health issues than those without.

Children living in areas with higher rates of unionization, regardless of whether their parents are unionized, end up better off. The researchers explain that some of the changes that unions fight for create a spillover effect for non-unionized families. "Unions generally advocate policies that benefit workers, such as raising minimum wages, increasing education spending, and improving public services, so that the effect of unionism may show up in higher incomes for all children from the area regardless of the union status of their parents," said the study.

The American worker has been faced by two trends over the past few decades: the percentage of workers that are members of labor unions has decreased and the American middle class has slowly been hollowed out.

Goodbye Middle Class: Now 51 Percent Of All American Workers Make Less Than 30,000 Dollars A Year

There is now more evidence that the middle class in America is dying. According to brand new numbers that was just released by the "Social Security Administration". Right now 51 percent of all workers in the United States make less than $30,000 a year.

Let that number sink in for a moment.

You can’t support a middle class family in America today under $3,000 a month especially after taxes are taken out. And yet more than half of all workers in this country make less than that each month. In order to have a thriving middle class, you have got to have an economy that produces lots of middle class jobs, and that simply is not happening in America today.

The following are some of the numbers that really stood out.

-38 percent of all American workers made less than $20,000 last year.

-51 percent of all American workers made less than $30,000 last year.

-62 percent of all American workers made less than $40,000 last year.

-71 percent of all American workers made less than $50,000 last year

That first number is truly staggering. The federal poverty level for a family of five is $28,410, and yet almost 40 percent of all American workers do not even bring in $20,000 a year. So many are barely scraping by right now. Many families have to fight tooth and nail just to make it from month to month, and there are lots of Americans that find themselves sinking deeper and deeper into debt. About a quarter of the country actually has a negative net worth right now.

What that means is that if you have no debt and you also have ten dollars in your pocket that gives you a greater net worth than about 25 percent of the entire country.

For decades, we have been teaching our children to have the goal of “getting a job” once they get out into the real world. But in America today there are not nearly enough good jobs to go around, and this crisis is only going to accelerate as we move into the future.

It is not very wise to put your future in a corporation that could replace you the moment that it becomes convenient for them to do so. We all need to start thinking differently, because without unionization America is breaking down.

HAHAHA!!!!!! I love this part... I hope some of are smart enough to know what this means....If not,well then good luck in the unemployment line.

Also on the chopping block is an 80-person group devoted to developing and implementing "lean" management principles, an ambitious efficiency program that Con-way has championed for years. Shortly after the deal was announced in early September, Bradley S. Jacobs, Greenwich, Conn.-based XPO's chairman and CEO, met in Ann Arbor with leaders of the project and came away dubious that the benefits of the work justified the size of the current headcount, according to the individual.

The individual said that Con-way's drivers are likely not included in the layoffs. It is also unclear whether there will be further rounds of cutbacks....REALLY BECAUSE ISN'T SELLING PART OF CONWAY A CUT'S???

Con-way Truckload, which as Contract Freighters Inc. was bought by Con-way in 2007 for $750 million and which today might fetch a little more than half that, will likely be sold for what Jacobs believes is the right price. He has said the unit might have value as a hauler of brokered freight.

Jacobs said earlier this month that XPO had received three unsolicited offers for Con-way Truckload. He wouldn't identify the bidders or the price of each offer....

AGAIN IT'S ABOUT THE PROFITS PEOPLE..IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU OR IF YOU CAN PAY YOUR BILLS OR FEED YOUR FAMILY.. REMEMBER THAT WHEN YOU'RE BEING CUT.OR HAVE YOU'RE WAGES LOWERED....AS FOR THE UNION..WELL THAT SHIP HAS SAILED... ALL WE CAN DO IS POST OUR FRUSTRATION HERE AND HOPE FOR THE BEST.

A Brief History Of Unions

Other Interesting Sites

UNIONS4WORKERS

UNION FACTS:

IT’S OUR RIGHT TO HAVE A UNION

Your New Job

UNIONS ARE CORRUPT:
Several studies have been done that have demonstrated that less than 1% of locals had corruption problems. Contrast this with a 1980 investigation into corporate corruption by Fortune magazine that found that corporate corruption ran at 11%.